Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor rejected the Anglican bishops views on BBC Radio Four's Today Programme, suggesting they were playing a "blame game."

Instead of blaming the Government for materialism and social problems, the cardinal said that responsibility should be shared more widely. Ordinary people and churchmen also bear some of the blame, he said.

"If we are going to accuse people of immorality it is much further than the Government, it is the whole country," Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said. "I am not too happy with the blame game because if we say that there has to be a "conversion", then I always start with myself."

I am glad that the cardinal spoke as he did. After all, we know that churches (dioceses, parishes, religious charities) were glad to accept big donations when they came and never looked too closely at the way the comapny or the financier concerned had made the money. It is, as the cardinal says, time for reflection and conversion for all of us.

Hmm ... my comment stands and is still valid, but ruminating on it over a cup of tea I realised that I was not quite tuned in properly. The target of the Anglican bishops had been the government, not the financial community. My new year resolutions: to go to the gym; and not to shoot from the hip on T1.9.

No surprise, I guess, to see the Catholic cardinal sticking up for the lefty Labour government. Most of the RC clergy and hierarchy here in America are raging Lefties, too. I was happily surprised, though, to see the Anglican leaders being critical.

—- Consider Bp. Tom Wright of Durham: “While the rich have got richer, the poor have got poorer. When a big bank or car company goes bankrupt, it gets bailed out, but no one seems to be bailing out the ordinary people who are losing their jobs.”

—- Consider Bp. Michael Scott-Joynt of Winchester: “The Government hasn’t done anything like enough to help those less well-off, particularly in terms of tax redistribution.”

—- Consider Bp. Nigel McCullough of Manchester: “The Government believes that money can answer all of the problems and has encouraged greed and a love of money that the Bible says is the root of all evil.”

A joke? Hardly. Sorry, but your “clips” skew what was actually said. You conveniently cut out the comments by the bishops condemning Labour’s contributions to the breakdown of the family and its support of alternative lifestyles, its encouragement of debt and over-spending, and its propensity toward offering big government as the solution to everything. And if you’re trying to claim Murphy-O’Connor as a conservative voice, well, you may want to check on that.

Teatime [#5]: Let’s get this straight. Prominent Anglican bishops criticize the Labour government for being too hardhearted, too Thatcherite. Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor pushes back against that criticism. And all you can say is “raging lefties” and “Catholic cardinal sticking up for the lefty Labour government.”

PS: Not clear how your fuming about the left squares with your being “happily surprised . . . to see the Anglican leaders being critical.”